This web site supports Dr. Russell Sabella's work on educating children, parents, educators and other stake holders about the responsible use of technology. Included in these pages you will find helpful resources, lesson plans, links, and more.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Calling all parents: YouTube is a mighty popular destination for kids, but not all the content there is kid-appropriate.

Send your toddlers and tweens to Kideos instead . The site serves up thousands upon thousands of child-friendly videos, from Animaniacs to Pixar shorts to Sesame Street to Word Girl (a personal favorite).

Study examines pro-anorexia and pro-bulimia websites

A new study led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health examines the content and messages presented by websites that appear to support or encourage eating disorders. These websites use images, text and interactive applications to further knowledge, attitudes and behaviors to achieve dangerously low body weights. The study is the largest and most rigorous analysis of pro-eating disorder websites and it is available online in advance of print in the June 17 edition of the American Journal of Public Health.

The internet offers messages and communities that sanction anorexia, bulimia and other eating disorders. Previous studies have shown the adolescents exposed to such pro-eating disorder websites have higher levels of body dissatisfaction compared to adolescents that have not been exposed. In addition, young people who have visited these sites are also known to engage in more and intense eating disordered behaviors.

"Some of the reviewed sites present very dangerous ideas and disturbing material that serve to inform and motivate users to continue behaviors in line with disordered eating and exercise behaviors," said Dina L.G. Borzekowski, EdD, lead author of the study and associate professor in the Bloomberg School's Department of Health, Behavior and Society. "Others sites seemed less harmful; they offered links to support recovery from these disorders and gave users venues for artistic expression."

For the study, Borzekowski and colleagues conducted a systemic content analysis of 180 active pro-anorexia (pro-ana) and pro-bulimia (pro-mia) websites. This involved creating a valid and generalizable sample and a reliable coding scheme. In addition to objectively counting site logistics and features, researchers devised a perceived harm scale for the analyzed sites.

According to the study, more than 91 percent of the websites were open to the public, and more than 79 percent had interactive features, such calorie and body-mass index (BMI) calculators. Eighty-four percent of the sites surveyed offered pro-anorexia content, while 64 percent provided pro-bulimia content. "Thinspiration" material appeared on 85 percent of the sites; this included photographs of extremely thin models and celebrities. About 83 percent provided overt suggestions on eating disordered behaviors, including ways to engage in extreme exercise, go on a several-day fast, purge after meals, and hide rapid weight loss from concerned family and friends.

On the other hand, thirty-eight percent of the sites included recovery-oriented information or links. Nearly half (42 percent) provided the maintainers and users a place where they could post art work and poetry.

"Knowing the messages that vulnerable populations encounter is critical," said Borzekowski. "To better understand how media messages can potentially harm, first we must be aware of what messages are out there."

###

Co-authors of the study "e-Ana and e-Mia: A Content Analysis of Pro-Eating Disorder Websites" include Summer Schenk, Jenny Wilson, and Rebecka Peebles. At the time of the study, Ms. Schenk was completing her MPH from the Bloomberg School of Public Health. Drs. Wilson and Peebles are from the Stanford University School of Medicine.

This tour, which began in December 2009, is designed to educate and empower students, teachers and parents to play an active role in encouraging safe habits online. In conjunction with this tour, iKeepSafe and Google created four videos, as well as in-class curriculum, for local communities across the United States."

Ebram Casas-Treski gets the shock of his life when he moves to a new town and learns that he will not be finishing elementary school at the top grade level but going to middle school instead. But loneliness, isolation, and bullies are only the beginning of his problem. Something mysterious is going on, on Texas Thistle Avenue, and it's difficult to ignore. Ice from the tap and in the toilet? Strange voices inside his siblings' heads? His grandfather's story about El DÃ a de los Muertos? And then there are the flying Santas! Ebram needs an answer, and the truth is not what he thinks. Enter the Shroudas, a strange group of tweens and teens who challenge the community with their active belief in doing good and helping others as themselves. But are they too uncool for Ebram to befriend? Parents and children will be drawn into this inspiring first book of author Esther Locascio's Ebram's Story series. The mystery has just begun. Join in the adventure and find out how Ebram gains self-confidence and a sense of purpose. Locascio also extends to readers an invitation to incorporate service to others into their daily lives.

CHICAGO — They aren't even out of grade school. But already, people are trying to name the youngest up-and-coming generation, and figure out who they might be and how they might be different from their predecessors.

At a loss for something more original, many call them Generation Z, because they follow Generations X and Y.

They've also been referred to as Generation Net or "iGen," since they've never known a world without the Internet.

That's the one point most everyone can agree on — that they are the tech-savviest generation of all time, so much so that even toddlers can maneuver their way through YouTube and some first-graders are able to put together a PowerPoint presentation for class.

Violent video games may increase aggression in some but not others, says new research

WASHINGTON – Playing violent video games can make some adolescents more hostile, particularly those who are less agreeable, less conscientious and easily angered. But for others, it may offer opportunities to learn new skills and improve social networking.

In a special issue of the journal Review of General Psychology, published in June by the American Psychological Association, researchers looked at several studies that examined the potential uses of video games as a way to improve visual/spatial skills, as a health aid to help manage diabetes or pain and as a tool to complement psychotherapy. One study examined the negative effects of violent video games on some people.

"Much of the attention to video game research has been negative, focusing on potential harm related to addiction, aggression and lowered school performance," said Christopher J. Ferguson, PhD, of Texas A&M International University and guest editor of the issue. "Recent research has shown that as video games have become more popular, children in the United States and Europe are having fewer behavior problems, are less violent and score better on standardized tests. Violent video games have not created the generation of problem youth so often feared."

In contrast, one study in the special issue shows that video game violence can increase aggression in some individuals, depending on their personalities.

In his research, Patrick Markey, PhD, determined that a certain combination of personality traits can help predict which young people will be more adversely affected by violent video games. "Previous research has shown us that personality traits like psychoticism and aggressiveness intensify the negative effects of violent video games and we wanted to find out why," said Markey.

Markey used the most popular psychological model of personality traits, called the Five-Factor Model, to examine these effects. The model scientifically classifies five personality traits: neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness and conscientiousness.

Analysis of the model showed a "perfect storm" of traits for children who are most likely to become hostile after playing violent video games, according to Markey. Those traits are: high neuroticism (e.g., easily upset, angry, depressed, emotional, etc.), low agreeableness (e.g., little concern for others, indifferent to others feelings, cold, etc.) and low conscientiousness (e.g., break rules, don't keep promises, act without thinking, etc.).

Markey then created his own model, focusing on these three traits, and used it to help predict the effects of violent video games in a sample of 118 teenagers. Each participant played a violent or a non-violent video game and had his or her hostility levels assessed. The teenagers who were highly neurotic, less agreeable and less conscientious tended to be most adversely affected by violent video games, whereas participants who did not possess these personality characteristics were either unaffected or only slightly negatively affected by violent video games.

"These results suggest that it is the simultaneous combination of these personality traits which yield a more powerful predictor of violent video games," said Markey. "Those who are negatively affected have pre-existing dispositions, which make them susceptible to such violent media."

"Violent video games are like peanut butter," said Ferguson. "They are harmless for the vast majority of kids but are harmful to a small minority with pre-existing personality or mental health problems."

The special issue also features articles on the positives of video game play, including as a learning tool. For example:

Video games serve a wide range of emotional, social and intellectual needs, according to a survey of 1,254 seventh and eighth graders. The study's author, Cheryl Olson, PhD, also offers tips to parents on how to minimize potential harm from video games (i.e., supervised play, asking kids why they play certain games, playing video games with their children).

Commercial video games have been shown to help engage and treat patients, especially children, in healthcare settings, according to a research review by Pamela Kato, PhD. For example, some specially tailored video games can help patients with pain management, diabetes treatment and prevention of asthma attacks.

Video games in mental health care settings may help young patients become more cooperative and enthusiastic about psychotherapy. T. Atilla Ceranoglu, M.D., found in his research review that video games can complement the psychological assessment of youth by evaluating cognitive skills and help clarify conflicts during the therapy process.

###

Contact Dr. Christopher Ferguson by e-mail at CJFerguson1111@aol.com; or by phone at (956) 326-2636 or (407) 384-8874 during June 1 – June 15

The American Psychological Association, in Washington, D.C., is the largest scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States and is the world's largest association of psychologists. APA's membership includes more than 152,000 researchers, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. Through its divisions in 54 subfields of psychology and affiliations with 60 state, territorial and Canadian provincial associations, APA works to advance psychology as a science, as a profession and as a means of promoting health, education and human welfare.

An article in the NY Times suggests that children should not have TV sets in their bedrooms. The author points out studies that have connected children having bedroom TVs with negative effects on sleep, overweight, smoking uptake, and school functioning. The CMCH Database of Research contains 24 studies that have examined some aspect of having televisions in kids' bedrooms.

PreSchool-Grade 1–This treatise on friendship is wrapped in the goofy guise of a relationship between a large pink creature that's a cross between a hippo and a dog, and a short animal with a long nose and orange-and-yellow striped skin, who narrates the story. At first, the smaller creature describes being lost, hurt, or simply shy and tells how the larger friend is there to help. Later, the two of them fight but quickly make up. Finally, the narrator is able to rescue his big buddy, who has become lost "in the woods, in the woods." The two of them fly off together in a hot-air balloon knowing that friendship is a two-way street. With repetitive phrasing and a poetic sensitivity, the text does a fine job of addressing the emotional vulnerability of individuals. It also moves the action along at a brisk pace. Besides the imaginative depictions of the fanciful characters, the artwork playfully uses color to augment their emotions–be it sunny yellow or an angry red. There is a heartwarming sweetness to this book.–Martha Topol, Traverse Area District Library, Traverse City, MI